it's actually best to brush the dog instead of shearing it for spinning. but I guess it all depends on what you're going to use the yarn for. if you're planning to knit a bag from the spun dog hair, you probably wouldn't care much about the softness of the fiber, but if you wanted to make something as absurd as... say... knit dog hair jewelry! - you should brush the dog to get the softer fibers from the under coat.

I have this odd obsession with the idea of spinning wooly mammoth hair...yup..You know, they are always digging them out of the ice. I read about some scientists cooking some meat from one. Freezerburn after several thousand years?? They said it was good. Whatever, what did they do with the hairs? I assume they are bristly. How many spinners living in the last few thousand years have spun that up??? Sometimes I think I am way out there..lol

If you're way out there then so am I because I think it would be really cool to spin up some wooly mammoth...maybe they would want to put it in the Smithsonian! Last fall I did a spinning (spindle) demonstration for the local historical society and decided to learn more about the history of spinning and talk about that while I spun rather than go into all the details of how to spin. I found this page in my search for the history and just loved this part "A figurine carved from the tusk of a wooly mammoth wearing a loincloth made of twisted threads was carbon dated back to 25,000 BCE, but it is difficult to determine if the threads in her garment were twisted or spun". 25,000 BCE!! The very beginnings of our obsession and the figurine's loincloth was probably spun from that wool mammoth's fur, lol. Do you think mammoths had a double coat? Imagine the size Furminator you'd need for that job, lol.

Cyndi, I also read about that same thing you saw with the beads too whilest doing some research for a college paper a while ago. I love odd facts so that sort of thing amuses me to no end. Glad to know I am not alone in the wooly mammoth thing. I am also assuming largely that they probably had double coats as well. I wonder if their babies were shorter stapled and lower micron counts...maybe the next bizzare time I run across a university studying them I might email them and ask them those questions. I am going to have to also guess at some point that ancient folks did spin it or give it a trial and error go at it. Hmmm...

I'm so glad i found this thread!!! I'm new to spinning and worried that i was crazy! at a garage sale i bought a scarf that was made of braided, slightly felted roving. i figured that i could just pick off the top part and use what was left, and that has worked so far, but then i was left with all this fluff that looked like dryer lint (which i thought was kinda pretty!) it was a pretty big pile and i started wondering if i could spin that too. i used some pretty string i had laying around and started spinning the leftover fluff, and to make a long story even longer, it worked!!! I'm even prouder of my fluff yarn then i am of the original yarn! i was worried people would think it was weird so i kinda kept it a secret, but i should have known that a fellow craftster would understand! plus now I'm inspired to try even weirder stuff!!! thanks.

Go for it, frankeknitter. You'll need a real tight twist on the fluff ... because it is such a short staple and because it is so silky. I've not found them to work well on their own, but they are great mixed with other fibers.

I'm about to embark on retting and spinning Spanish moss to be woven into Civil War era horse blankets.